Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/618

598 therewith is most remarkable. In the year 1722, Mr. Wood, an iron founder of Wolverhampton, England, claimed to have discovered an alloy suitable for coins, consisting of copper, zinc, and a small proportion of silver. Through the influence of a favorite of

George I, known as the "Duchess of Kendall," a patent was issued by the king, dated July 12, 1722, together with a "royal licence," which was to continue for fourteen years, for coining "tokens" for Ireland and the colonies of North America to a large extent—viz., "three hundred tons"; the amount of the Irish coin was limited to £105,000, a great sum at that day.

A small royalty of £100 a year was to be paid into the king's exchequer and a salary of £200 to an officer of the Crown, called the "comptroller," Sir Isaac Newton, then the director of the Royal Mint, was chosen for this office, and he served for a short time, when he nominated a nephew, who succeeded him.

Thousands of Wood's base metal coins were struck for use in Ireland, and the issue would probably have been accepted by the people without question, had it not been that Dean Swift, then living in seclusion, saw in this scheme an opportunity to attack the English Government, and by his Drapier's Letters, his poems, and other writings, all anonymously published, in which he mercilessly lampooned the scheme and all those who were in any way connected with it, he aroused a storm of fury that is said to have been "indescribable." A writer of the day said: "All parties. Catholics and Protestants, Whigs, Tories, Orangemen, and Rapparees, were equally frantic. Merchants publicly announced that they would not accept the coin; the very hawkers and link-boys refused it, declaring it would buy neither ale, tobacco, nor brandy. Wood's effigy was dragged through the streets of Dublin and burned. . ..